Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Becoming Biodiversity is an augmented reality application that encourages participants to explore and experience local, ecological networks present in an urban park site. Cell phones and headphones are used to experience this artwork, which includes mixed-reality animations and storytelling as an overlay to the actual park. The experience is an embodied one, designed to connect humans empathetically with the biodiversity, symbioses, and unseen worlds in public park spaces.
Fantastic ecologies exist everywhere on earth and at many scales, many of which are invisible to us. Though we mostly ignore and disrespect the non-humans in these networks, our lives depend upon them. This artwork is a guided tour which will allow us to inhabit the worlds of multiple species along the network, allowing them to become visible and “sense-able” to us. The viewer re-enacts stories from the perspectives of non-humans; playing the part of a plant calling out to a bird to help with pest control, an ant planting spring flowers while simultaneously feeding her babies, an underground fungal network delivering goods to struggling trees, and a cormorant searching for a meal in a man-made lake in New York City.
There are 8 scenes, each takes place at Willow Lake, on the South end of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The starting point for the app tour is the East entrance of the Pat Dolan Trail, right after walking over the Van Wyck Expressway pedestrian bridge. This is near the Mauro Playground. The tour takes about 26 minutes and the one-way walk down the trail is less than a mile.
Becoming Biodiversity Augmented reality app exhibited at the New York Electronic Arts Festival, June 1 - August 11, 2019
Commissioned by Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center through the Artist in Residence Program
Support: New York Urban Field Station, a partnership between NYC Parks, the US Forest Service, and the Natural Areas Conservancy, NY. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Collaborators: Josh Rodenberg, audio. Danielle McPhatter, programming. Jayne Kennedy, 3D modeling.
Download page for Android or iOS hypernatural.com/bb
Becoming Biodiversity is an augmented reality application that encourages participants to explore and experience local, ecological networks present in an urban park site. Cell phones and headphones are used to experience this artwork, which includes mixed-reality animations and storytelling as an overlay to the actual park. The experience is an embodied one, designed to connect humans empathetically with the biodiversity, symbioses, and unseen worlds in public park spaces.
Fantastic ecologies exist everywhere on earth and at many scales, many of which are invisible to us. Though we mostly ignore and disrespect the non-humans in these networks, our lives depend upon them. This artwork is a guided tour which will allow us to inhabit the worlds of multiple species along the network, allowing them to become visible and “sense-able” to us. The viewer re-enacts stories from the perspectives of non-humans; playing the part of a plant calling out to a bird to help with pest control, an ant planting spring flowers while simultaneously feeding her babies, an underground fungal network delivering goods to struggling trees, and a cormorant searching for a meal in a man-made lake in New York City.
There are 8 scenes, each takes place at Willow Lake, on the South end of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The starting point for the app tour is the East entrance of the Pat Dolan Trail, right after walking over the Van Wyck Expressway pedestrian bridge. This is near the Mauro Playground. The tour takes about 26 minutes and the one-way walk down the trail is less than a mile.
Becoming Biodiversity Augmented reality app exhibited at the New York Electronic Arts Festival, June 1 - August 11, 2019
Commissioned by Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center through the Artist in Residence Program
Support: New York Urban Field Station, a partnership between NYC Parks, the US Forest Service, and the Natural Areas Conservancy, NY. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Collaborators: Josh Rodenberg, audio. Danielle McPhatter, programming. Jayne Kennedy, 3D modeling.
Download page for Android or iOS hypernatural.com/bb
